As a lot of you may know, I am infatuated with the horror genre! Although, I find that a lot of horror films only get seen and make money these days if they are remakes, never-ending franchises, or filled with a cast of talentless hacks who often wind up on the cover of Us Weekly. It seems like it’s all about making a commercial product, rather than making inventive, scary, and creative films.
So I thought I would start a blog every week on my recommendations of horror films that deserve to be seen. Feel free to comment on your own suggestions!
I was lucky to see a special screening in Toronto last month, where up and coming director Adam Green presented his festival winner slasher flick, Hatchet, and I must say I was blown away by the results.
Sure it didn’t have an original premise, (The movie is about a swamp monster who hacks up tourists. Need I say more?) and it was full of cheesy dialogue that would make most film critics cringe. However, it didn’t matter, because Hatchet is a movie that brings back the tone, feel and nostalgia of good ol’ fashioned 80’s slasher films that horror geeks like myself will appreciate, and general audiences will find extremely entertaining.
Please be warned though, this movie is quite possibly one of the goriest movies you will ever see in your entire life! (Which I found quite impressive considering the budget.) Although, unlike torture porn films like Hostel and Saw that involve disturbing and grisly gore that tests audience’s gag reflexes, Hatchet’s gore is way over the top, is not to be taken too seriously, and is very reminiscent of Peter Jackson’s epic horror classic, Braindead.
Overall, Hatchet is nothing too complicated. It has no overdone twist ending at the end. It’s just a simple and effectively scary slasher flick that is a whole lot of fun to watch especially with a huge group of people, and any horror movie involving Robert Englund, (Freddy Krueger) Kane Hodder, (Jason Vorhees) and Tony Todd (Candyman) all in the same movie is a must see!
If you haven’t yet seen it in festivals, catch it in theatres on September 7, 2007.
